God our Father has blessed many of the faithful with the gift of children. Our Catechism teaches us that parents are the primary educators of their children in the ways of the faith, and parents teach primarily by the example they set for their children.
Our Holy Father, Pope Francis has called upon the Church and all Christian communities to accompany and support parents in their educative role. One way the Church can assist parents is through our “Children’s Liturgy of the Word (CLOW)” ministry. As previously explained in our Parish School of Religion guidelines, the “CLOW ministry enables children to participate in the formal worship experience, to nourish and guide their spiritual growth and to immerse them in the Word of God in ways that are understandable to them.”
Children are encouraged to attend Mass with their parents, and then, “The children are dismissed from Mass during the Liturgy of the Word. They are escorted to the chapel and assisted by volunteer shepherds. They will hear the Word from the Children’s Lectionary. The leader guides the children to an understanding of the Gospel that they can embrace. The children will return to their parents at the offertory.”
The guidelines also state that, “All the elements that help to explain the readings are given great consideration so that the children may make the bible readings their own and may come more and more to appreciate the value of God’s word.”
CLOW is offered at the 9:00 am Sunday Mass during our Parish School of Religion (PSR) season, extending from September to May. All children, ages 4 years old through First Grade, are welcome to participate. There is no registration necessary.
The following “Prayer for a Child’s Faith”, asks God to guide the faith journey of a precious child:
Dear God:
Create in my child pure heart, and renew a steadfast spirit within him.
Help my child to know your Word and to grow in faith each day.
Thank You that Your word says I am convinced that neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons, neither the present or the future,
nor any power, neither height, nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate my child from
the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
As we reflect on this prayer, we are invited to note that our ministry coordinators stated that they “are looking for Leaders who enjoy children and engaging them in learning about the Gospel stories.” The Leaders would rotate and assist about one Sunday per month. Please contact our CLOW coordinators Barbara Kratz and Kathryn Halaszynski if you would like to participate.
We thank our coordinators and their staff for all they do to assist our children as they grow in their knowledge and understanding of the faith.